


Man's Best Friend with Benefits, 8.15

by ceirdwenfc



Category: Supernatural
Genre: 8.15, Meta, Other, man's best friend with benefits
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-22
Updated: 2013-02-22
Packaged: 2017-12-03 05:16:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/694571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ceirdwenfc/pseuds/ceirdwenfc
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Meta about this episode. Includes some Destiel parallels and brief discussion of the racism controversy from Tumblr.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Man's Best Friend with Benefits, 8.15

This might be a little disjointed; I'll try to fix it up on the edits, but if I don't, I apologize.

They're back in St. Louis. Isn't there still a warrant out for their arrest? Or was that vacated? They didn't mention it at all, and they seemed not to be worried about it, even going into the police station. I'm not sure about that.

I've been reading a lot of stuff here about Portia and race and the dozen or so parallels to Destiel, so while I was re-watching the show tonight that was really where my focus was even though I tried to pay attention to the other little things as well.

My only disclaimer about the race controversy will be that I'm not African-American. In the original viewing, I didn't notice how it looked, (other than that she was a dog, and honestly, I think it would have been worse if she were a cat) to many other viewers who spoke out afterwards on Tumblr. When I read their criticisms, I did re-watch with that in mind because the commentary was what made me look twice. As people brought up the collar and the master references and the chains, it made me uncomfortable in retrospect, but again I'm really not sure if it should bother me or if I'm being politically correct. I'd like someone this actually affects to let me know if they thought it was racism or historical ignorance.

I've also read a commentary in the past about how pretty much all of the characters of color are all bad guys, even the ones who are supposedly on Dean and Sam's side. The exception being Hendrickson in the end, and after what he saw, he didn't really have a choice. I'm glad that Portia didn't turn out to be a bad guy. She remained a good guy throughout and hopefully will be an ally to the Winchesters in the future.

To start, I took Portia's collar as more of an identifier to remind the viewer that she was both the dog and the woman. There were no tags, so no ownership was shown. I did not once find her subservient at all. The only time I thought he ordered her was consistent with their relationship as equals. It was very similar to the fight a married couple might have. Obviously, the tension was more elevated than your typical argument.

As for the chains, I watched that scene very closely (yeah, yeah, anyway…), and I don't see either the slavery context or the BDSM context that I keep reading about. As for the slavery, I'm not in a position to give an appropriate commentary on that, so if a POC who feels strongly about it wants to chime in, as I said above, please do so. The chains could have been fastened by Sam or Dean (they could have stayed to do that), but it was Portia's place, not as his familiar, but as his friend. If it were Benny in that position, I would expect Dean to do the chaining.

With the BDSM references, I'm not seeing it other than James being chained to the bed. James and Portia didn't have the chains; Dean brought them. James being chained wasn't the turn on. She chained him. She apologized and he reassured her that he wanted a good outcome, whether he was innocent or guilty. She rested her head on his chest in a very loving way. She was worried about him. There was no chain-hot-must-have-you-now. She loved him, she kissed him and they followed through.

Certainly, she and James did not have and did not see a master-servant relationship. The commitment between Portia and James is more than your average witch-familiar, and I also think that it may have been better (from a race sensitive place) to instead of master-dog, master-familiar, they could possibly have used witch and familiar. It would have made it a bit more egalitarian and the connotation would not have gone to the race place.

I'd like to think that the problem in the witch community was actually the equality of their relationship. The only other example that we have is Spenser and Philippe, which was very much not on equal terms. As soon as Philippe changed into the cat, his master was scratching his ear and petting him. I don't recall seeing that between James and Portia.

As for Philippe, I've read elsewhere that le chat is the cat in French. I did not know this, but I had already gone to my childhood filled with Looney Tunes cartoons, and thought of Pepe LePew. Once Dean started sneezing and referencing cats that sealed what kind of familiar Philippe was.

I read something about Dean perhaps being surprised by Philippe's yellow eyes (a reference to Azazel), but I'm more inclined to believe that the way Dean grew up, being wary and downright enemies with supernatural things that a man changing into anything in front of him like that is still disturbing to him. Remember that he never saw Portia physically change until the end. There was that momentary pause where Dean wonders if it's impolite to gank this what is it again, oh wait, I'm a guest here, I guess ganking is out of the question. He's very much out of his element and kind of uncomfortable.

I'm a Destiel shipper, so let's have a look at the parallels, shall we? I think they're red herrings. The writers are so media savvy, these obvious clues are to get us to draw parallels to Dean and Cas. I think (and like) that the writers are fucking with the fans in a good way. Every time one came up in the show, I did pause and think about Dean and Cas, but I don't think that _Dean_ was thinking about him and Cas and that's really the whole point of a parallel like that; to get the character to realize the parallel and make the connection to his life as he convinces the other one that things are okay. He's done it before with things he's said to Sam and Bobby and realized that he was talking about himself.

For one thing, Dean was distracted by the hot woman (when was the last time he responded that way to a woman (and that's not a bisexual nod)) and while he was watching her and thinking about her having sex with James and did she do it as a dog and what exactly does doggy style mean in that relationship, he was not thinking about Castiel.

I did like Dean's honesty when she asked him if he was thinking about them having sex and he said, no, then said, yes with that look and she does judge him, but she also didn't answer him and he didn't press it, realizing that there was a line crossed and he's crossed that inappropriate line before with 'people' who weren't human and never remotely apologized for it (I can picture it at least once, but I can't remember the person or the episode; only Dean's face).

He also couldn't get past the other fact that she was a dog. He's very compartmental, and he couldn't fit her in a box.

He also doesn't like dogs, and who can blame him after all of his Hell Hound encounters.

His attitude also goes back to that she is a non-human being, and that already puts her in his suspicious column. His default is also woman=protect, and this woman didn't need protecting. In the end, it was Portia who saved them by breaking Spenser's connection and giving them the time to light the witch killing molotov and gank the bad guy.

I have a couple of questions, though.

Am I the only one that finds it odd that James has monogrammed shirts? Is that a big thing in cop or witch world?

Philippe calls James a witch-cop. Do I hear spin-off? ;)

They made a point to mention Benny and Kate. This is a reminder that Dean has changed a lot in regards to working with non-humans.

Why is Sam coughing up blood? Could be a normal reason, but I doubt it; this is Supernatural. I can't remember – is it his turn to die? We'll have to see if Sam tells Dean about the blood on his own. I'll give him a week unless it keeps it to himself until Cas comes back. I'm trying to give him the benefit of the doubt that maybe it's just a normal 'I'm fine' like we all do when we're sick rather than actually hiding a big thing.

One more Destiel parallel comment. Golem and Aaron and Gilda and Charlie have been brought up, and I honestly don't understand why. Golem and Aaron are not even remotely the same relationship that Dean and Castiel would have together. The Golem, if I'm interpreting correctly is to serve Aaron and his family; Aaron is very clearly the master similar to how the Witch-Familiar relationship should be. Gilda and Charlie are closer to a parallel, but not really. Yes, it's interspecies, but they have a basic understanding of their feelings. There's no question as to Charlie's connection to Gilda. She's immediately attracted to her and she to Charlie. Neither Dean nor Cas has ever had this situation to look back on. Any attraction to men that Dean had, he's ignored. Cas is his equal and most, if not all of his sexual relationships he is the more dominant, the protector. He can't have that dynamic with Cas.

Do I think the writers put all of those sound bites into Man's Best Friend with Benefits because it furthers the story? I doubt it. I think it was completely for the fans. It gives us something to parse and analyze until after the two week break and Cas' return when we start bitching because there's no way in that first episode back there will be any kind of indication of Destiel. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if he came back at the very end of the episode. I may be wrong; I don't read a lot of the behind the scenes stuff, and have seen nothing for that episode.

I'll finish with moments that made me laugh:

"He's a Wiccan from Detroit." The looks he gets; everyone knows he's not and they are not happy.

"Please don't hurt my face." That's not the first time that we've heard that. They must really not want their faces fucked up.

"I like dogs." "No, really, you don't." It's clear that he's not hitting on her; she's with James, so why interject that. It's funny how much he wants so much to be liked.


End file.
